Butterfly Wall Art

I got this really cool idea for wall art when you have a large area to cover with limited amounts of funds. I printed out tons of butterflies on a specialty translucent paper. I wanted to be able to re-position the butterflies without leaving any sticky crud on my walls. I found the perfect adhesive pads that were just the ticket.

I stuck 50 butterflies to my living room wall and folded up the wings. They looked awesome- very realistic. I fell in love, and so did everyone else who came over to visit. I don't think there was a singe person who didn't comment on the butterflies

 I got so many requests to make them for others that I decided to sell them in my shop. They're a hit, I've gotten a lot of thank yous from happy customers.

Just check out this lovely photo from one of my customers. This wall art was created using one set of 50 monarchs and one set of regular colorful butterflies. It turned out simply stunning.      

If you would like a set a butterflies a link to my Etsy shop is in the toolbar above. Happy New Year!

Image Transfer Coffee Gift Bag

I'm going to show you how to make a charming personalized gift bag to show your friends and family that you care. I'm going to do this using a very simple image transfer technique that is very useful in creating mixed media. This technique works on card stock, wood, canvas, etc. but doesn't work so well on non-porous surfaces like glass. You can transfer images from newsprint, magazines, or print up your own. You can pretty much use any image that isn't glossy.

What you will need:
-Scissors
-Pictures you want to transfer
-Paintbrush
-Gel medium (found in the paint section of arts and crafts stores)
-Bag, Canvas, or wood (item you want to decorate)
-Old credit card

*You may want to get adhesive to glue small objects onto your finished product like dice, playing cards, pennies, coffee beans, lace, etc.

Ok, here we go. First I recommend covering your work surface. Now you are going to paint the surface of the bag with gel medium. Apply the image (inked side down) to the painted surface. If you apply to much gel medium and it oozes out from under the picture simply wipe it away with your fingers. Now take a credit card and scrape it across the images back side for 30 seconds. This presses the ink into the gel medium, so the more you scrape the more the image will transfer. But don't take longer than a minute or the gel will dry completely and you will have a tough time getting the paper off.

Now slowly peel the paper off.You may notice ghostly white spots where the paper came off with the ink. You can gently rub it off or leave it there. If you leave it there you get a more vintage textured look. It really depends on the effect you are going for.

You can layer pictures on top of one another. Just apply more gel medium on top of the desired area and repeat the instructions above.

I decided to grunge up the bag a bit by sloppily applying black paint with a dry paintbrush (remember a little goes a long way). Smear it around, and there ya' go.

I glued coffee beans to the bottom corner.

... and added a twine bow





Voila! The finished product.

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I Heart Naptime, Tatertots and Jello, Naturally Me Creations, The Blackberrry Vine, Just a Girl, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Singing Three Little Birds, Under the Table Sleeping, Not Just a House Wife, All Thingz Related, Night Owl Crafting, Someday Crafts, Hope Studios, Blue Cricket Designs, Homemaker On a Dime